mei-drops

Yesterday: Went to the Exploratorium in SF with some Ohana frands! Since two of us were Googlers and Googlers and their +1s get in for free, all four of us got in for free :DDD It was quite fun: for one of us it was a first-time visit, and the rest of us just really enjoy science centres in general haha. We explored a bit of Chinatown afterwards and got some Italian food for dinner :) Then we went back to ML's place and watched some Terrace House LOL. Since the whole thing was planned so last-minute and I had been really tired the night before, I'm super-glad I was able to go in the end! :) (I think the further away from college age I am, the more I realize how much energy it takes to go up to the city haha) Today: Some CCF alums (all younger than me ahaha) came over for dinner! :D We were originally gonna get Bonchon (SW has never had it before) but at the last minute we found out that Bonchon was closed on Tuesdays.. so we got Chick-Fil-A instead xD Good catch-...

Since 2015, I've had the incredible privilege of being able to visit Vancouver twice a year (!!!). This week, my excuse to visit was a dear friend (Natasha)'s wedding. The wedding took place the other day—yes, on a Thursday! It was a full day, so I'll recount the highlights here: Got a ride with Syd and Es! Had to wake up super-early since it took about 2h to get to the Fraser Valley, where the wedding was. The dust particles from the recent forest fires made the sunlight look orange o__O Trying to sneak a selfie with the bride and groom mwahaha. The weather was predicted to be around 42-45°C that day, but thankfully it didn't turn out as bad. Indoor reception. It was such a lovely place! And they served us brunch-style food YASSSSSS They didn't have a bridal party, so they had a bunch of friends from the community house(s) they lived in do a group speech! It was hilarious!! (and so touching :')) We sent off the bride and groom to t...

Wanted to blog about something small but memorable! (I figured if I kept my blog posts short and sweet and include photos, it would be easier to blog more often.) Tonight I had my cousin (who had just moved back to the Bay Area to start FT work) and several fellowship friends over for dinner and a Star Wars movie! :D One of our friends (seen above) had not seen any of the Star Wars movies yet, so we decided to start her off with Episode 4. We all had a great time—she enjoyed it enough to want to watch the next few movies, and those of us who had seen the movie reveled in its classic scenes. I was also excited to see my cousin get to know my felly friends! :) After the movie we (sans cousin and some friends who had to leave early) went to get late-night boba, then we came back to my place and watched a few episodes of Terrace House LOL. Hope this happens more often! :)

I recently had a good chat with my mentor K, in which we talked about life updates, struggles, and following Christ in this day and age. She said two things that really struck me: 1. There are certain situations in which you can only go to God for healing—other people won't be able to help you. K learned this when she faced a really difficult situation a few years ago wherein confiding in others was not enough; she had to go to God. Since I was so used to getting support only from my friends (I like getting instant feedback), I doubted whether confiding in God would be enough. I'm pretty sure He is more than enough, but that I just don't trust Him to be (and this is perhaps a sin). Lord, may I find You to be more than enough! 2. At many churches, people talk/programs are designed as if marriage is the expected trajectory/right thing to do. But what if God is not calling one to marriage? How can we as a church community support singles in a more holistic way? Will blog...

Moraine Lake at dusk Learned the other day that I had successfully referred one of my fellowship friends (who had just moved back to the Bay Area for full-time work) to a Christian house via Google connections! :D Yayayay praise the Lord for His timing/orchestration! God has been speaking encouragement and challenge to me through several different people this week; thankful for His answers to prayer in the midst of my struggles. Went to Banff/Jasper/Yoho National Parks over Memorial Day weekend with LF! That place has SO MUCH BEAUTY T__T LF and I were both extremely grateful to have been able to experience such wonder. Made me think about how big God is, and how strange and incredible it is for such a huge God to care for such tiny people. Had our church-wide retreat this past Sunday. It was quick, but it was also a good time to catch up with friends old and new :) Also had some good devo time. Practicing with JKC tonight for communion music on Sunday! Excited to be playing ...

For Lent this year, I decided to give up Distractions in the following ways: Turn off radio/all music in car. Do not check phone when outside the house, except when receiving/making calls or navigating. Restrict personal Chrome browsing to one tab. It is currently the end of Day 24 of Lent. Here are my observations so far: Pros: I get a lot more done at work \o/ I've always felt like I was not working as excellently as I could during my first 2 years at Google (e.g. not using time wisely), so I hope this is a good externally-visible change. I pay closer attention to conversations and meetings (.. most of the time haha. I'm a daydreamer by nature so still not at 100%). I use the quiet time while driving to pray and think and observe my surroundings (there are quite a few flowering trees on my way to work! :)). I save on data by not streaming music/podcasts while driving lol. It feels really nice to come home to a bunch of notifications LOL, and then I can just ...

As part of my new year's resolutions last year I made a reading list , 11/17 of which I was able to read through by the end of 2016 (yay!). This year, aside from a new reading list  (still under construction), I made a 2017 Baking/Cooking List . I will likely add more items to it as the year goes on, but the ones you see right now are the absolute I-can't-believe-I-haven't-made-this-before recipes. So yes, lately I've been hosting a lot of cooking parties with my friends, in an attempt to go through this list xDDD My hope is that I can use food as a means to reach out to my community—neighbours, coworkers, old classmates, family—either by bringing them meals or hosting at my current home. Gonna prayer++ about it to work out the details!

Just wanted to share a song we sang at church service this past Sunday. The lyrics are especially poignant and the melody melancholy and bittersweet :) It resonated with me because it described well some of the pain I've felt before, and yet with the same rich words reminded me of the greater comfort and glory that comes from knowing the Father. Perish every fond ambition, All I've sought or hope or known. Yet how rich is my condition! God and heaven are still my own.

Reminds me of a certain book ! xD Just doing a quick blog post since I wanted to remember this day, and since I wanted to make blogging a habit again :) Met up with my childhood friend/classmate SLV in the city this past Saturday—the first time in almost 15 years!! I think the last time I saw her was in Grade 5 at a Girl Scouts' farewell event at our school in the Philippines hahaha. We walked around the Embarcadero area, went to the SF MOMA, had some coffee and snacks. Man, it was so good to catch up and hear how she and everyone in our batch was doing. For some reason I thought that we had been classmates all throughout grade school, but it turned out she and I were only in the same class for 2 out of 5 years haha (our moms were good friends and both in the parents' association though, so I went over to her place a lot growing up). For me, the coolest part about reuniting with childhood classmates as an adult is that even if you had really different pe...